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Bhubaneswar: Fumed over the State government’s lackadaisical attitude in addressing their constant demand to increase bus fare, the All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association on Friday threatened to go on an indefinite strike from August 26.
“Last month, when we approached the State government for a fare hike, we were assured that the matter will be considered after the Rath Yatra. But even after a month it is yet to take any step in this regard. The government has to take a decision this time before August 25,” Association spokesperson Debasish Nayak warned.
Expressing disgust at the state government’s disregard towards the Association’s proposal for a fuel price based auto-regulating price model, Nayak stated that the system would help address the problem completely.
“Since every time when the diesel price is increased, we cannot ask the government for a fare hike, the model was proposed. In the system it was suggested that bus fares would be hiked by 1 paise when diesel price is raised to a stipulated price point and the fare would also come down in the same proportion when the fuel price is reduced. We can’t understand what’s wrong in it,” asked Nayak.
The members of the Association expressing their inability to ply buses in the face of frequent fuel price rise asserted that the price of diesel was hiked seven times in the past seven months while the last fare hike was effected on November 1, 2012.
Notably there are around 14,000 private buses plying in the State.
